US-12619217-B2 - Method of managing manufacturing line

US12619217B2US 12619217 B2US12619217 B2US 12619217B2US-12619217-B2

Abstract

According to one embodiment, there is provided a method of managing a manufacturing line. The method comprises obtaining a capability variation characteristic of each resource based on a throughput result of a process area among multi process areas arranged in the manufacturing line, each of the process areas including a multi resources. The method comprises determining number of additional resources for achievement of a quota in the process area based on the number of resources in the process area and the obtained capability variation characteristic.

Inventors

Teruhiko TENNOJI

Assignees

KIOXIA CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230615
Priority Date: 20220921

Claims (20)

1 . A method of managing a manufacturing line, the method comprising: obtaining a capability variation characteristic of each resource based on a throughput result of a process area among multi process areas arranged in the manufacturing line, each of the process areas including a multi resources, the capability variation characteristic being obtained by statistically analyzing distribution of a throughput result over time in a predetermined period; and determining number of additional resources for achievement of a quota in the process area based on the number of resources in the process area and the obtained capability variation characteristic.
2 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 1 , further comprising notifying the determined number of additional resources by a visual and/or auditory unit.
3 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the capability variation characteristic includes: obtaining a probability distribution of a throughput of each resource; and obtaining a parameter indicating a characteristic of the probability distribution.
4 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 3 , wherein the determining the number of additional resources includes obtaining, when p is set to a number greater than 0 and equal to or smaller than 100, a number as the number of additional resources, the number being obtained by subtracting a current number of resources from the number of resources in which a boundary corresponding to p % of the entire probability distribution is equal to or greater than the quota in the process area.
5 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 4 , wherein the determining the number of additional resources includes obtaining, by the number of additional resources m, m satisfying ∑ i = 1 n + m ⁢ μ i - k ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n + m ⁢ σ i 2 ≥ t where an identifier of a resource E is set to i, average throughput of a resource Ei is set to μi, a standard deviation of the resource Ei is set to σi, the current number of resources is set to n, a coefficient corresponding to p is set to k, and the quota in the process area is set to t.
6 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the number of additional resources includes determining, when the resource is addible, the number of additional resources in the process area for the achievement of the quota in the process area based on the number of resources in the process area and the obtained capability variation characteristic, the method further comprising determining, when the resource is not addible, an allowable throughput variation of the process area or each resource for the achievement of the quota in the process area based on the number of resources in the process area.
7 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 6 , further comprising: notifying, when the resource is addible, the determined number of additional resources by a visual and/or auditory unit; and notifying, when the resource is not addible, the determined allowable throughput variation by the visual and/or auditory unit.
8 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 6 , wherein the obtaining the capability variation characteristic includes: obtaining a probability distribution of a throughput of each resource; and obtaining a parameter indicating a characteristic of the probability distribution.
9 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 8 , wherein the determining the number of additional resources includes obtaining, when p is set to a number greater than 0 and equal to or smaller than 100, a number as the number of additional resources, the number being obtained by subtracting a current number of resources from the number of resources in which a boundary corresponding to p % of the entire probability distribution is equal to or greater than the quota in the process area, and the determining the allowable throughput variation includes obtaining the allowable throughput variation as a variance allowable from an average throughput in the probability distribution to a throughput corresponding to a quota corresponding to p % of the entire probability distribution.
10 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 9 , wherein the determining the number of additional resources includes obtaining, by the number of additional resources m, m satisfying ∑ i = 1 n + m ⁢ μ i - k ⁢ ∑ i = 1 n + m ⁢ σ i 2 ≥ t where an identifier of a resource E is set to i, an average throughput of a resource Ei is set to μi, a standard deviation of the resource Ei is set to σi, a current number of resources is set to n, a coefficient corresponding to p is set to k, and the quota of the process area is set to t, and the determining the allowable throughput variation includes obtaining ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ σ i 2 satisfying ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ σ i 2 ≤ ( ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ μ i - t k ) 2 where the identifier of the resource E is set to i, the average throughput of the resource Ei is set to μi, the standard deviation of the resource Ei is set to σi, the current number of resources is set to n, the coefficient corresponding to p is set to k, and the quota of the process area is set to t.
11 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 1 , further comprising: obtaining, based on the number of resources in the process area and the throughput result in the process area, a probability distribution of the number of resources operable in the process area with respect to a recipe corresponding to a combination of a job type and the process area; and obtaining, based on the obtained probability distribution, the number of necessary resources of the recipe for the achievement of the quota in the process area.
12 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 11 , further comprising notifying the obtained number of necessary resources by a visual and/or auditory unit.
13 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 11 , wherein the obtaining the probability distribution of the number of resources includes obtaining multi the probability distributions of the number of resources operable on the recipe while changing the number of resources to be allocated to the recipe among the number of resources in the process area, and the obtaining the number of necessary resources of the recipe includes obtaining, based on the obtained multi probability distributions, the number of necessary resources of the recipe for the achievement of the quota of the recipe.
14 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 13 , wherein the obtaining the number of necessary resources of the recipe includes: selecting an appropriate probability distribution among the obtained multi probability distributions; and setting the number of resources corresponding to the selected probability distribution as the number of necessary resources of the recipe.
15 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 14 , wherein the selecting the appropriate probability distribution includes: specifying, among the multi probability distributions, one or more probability distributions in which a ratio of a portion smaller than the quota of the recipe is smaller than a threshold; and selecting, among the one or more specified probability distributions, a probability distribution having the minimum number of corresponding resources as the appropriate probability distribution.
16 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 11 , further comprising: obtaining a weight of the recipe according to the number of necessary resources of the recipe; and allocating a total processing capability of each resource to the recipe according to the weight of the recipe.
17 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 16 , wherein the obtaining the weight of the recipe includes obtaining a weight in accordance with a reciprocal of the number of necessary resources of the recipe.
18 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 17 , wherein the process area corresponds to multi the recipes, and the obtaining the weight of the recipe includes obtaining a weight in accordance with a ratio of the reciprocal of the number of necessary resources of the recipe to a sum of the reciprocals of the number of necessary resources of the multi recipes.
19 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 18 , wherein the obtaining the weight of the recipe includes obtaining a weight in accordance with a ratio of a first product of a time converted from the quota of the recipe and the reciprocal of the number of necessary resources of the recipe to a sum obtained by adding the first products with respect to the multi recipes.
20 . The method of managing the manufacturing line according to claim 19 , wherein the obtaining the weight of the recipe includes obtaining a weight in accordance with a ratio of a second product of a time converted from the quota of the recipe in consideration of an amount of jobs capable of being processed in parallel by the resource and the reciprocal of the number of necessary resources of the recipe to a sum obtained by adding the second products with respect to the multi recipes.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is based upon and claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-150660, filed on Sep. 21, 2022; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIELD Embodiments described herein relate generally to a method of managing a manufacturing line. BACKGROUND In a manufacturing line, when a job is input to a process area including multi resources, the resources operate to process the job. In the manufacturing line, it is desirable to be able to efficiently process the job. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a manufacturing line according to a first embodiment; FIGS. 2A to 2E are diagrams illustrating variations in resource throughput and job influx according to the first embodiment; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management system according to the first embodiment; FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating a probability distribution of a throughput of a process area according to the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the management system according to the first embodiment; FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the management system according to the first embodiment; FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management system according to a modification of the first embodiment; FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a probability distribution of a throughput of a process area according to the modification of the first embodiment; FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the management system according to the modification of the first embodiment; FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management system according to a second embodiment; FIGS. 11A to 11D are diagrams illustrating probability distributions of the number of resources that can operate for a recipe according to the second embodiment; FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the management system according to the second embodiment; FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management system according to a third embodiment; FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an operation of the management system according to the third embodiment; FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the management system according to the third embodiment; and FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management system in which the first to third embodiments are combined. DETAILED DESCRIPTION In general, according to one embodiment, there is provided a method of managing a manufacturing line. The method comprises obtaining a capability variation characteristic of each resource based on a throughput result of a process area among multi process areas arranged in the manufacturing line, each of the process areas including a multi resources. The method comprises determining number of additional resources for achievement of a quota in the process area based on the number of resources in the process area and the obtained capability variation characteristic. Exemplary embodiments of a method of managing a manufacturing line will be explained below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. First Embodiment A method of managing a manufacturing line according to a first embodiment manages the manufacturing line in which multi process areas are arranged. Each process area includes multi resources. In the manufacturing line, when a job is input to the process area, the resource operates to process the job. In the method of managing the manufacturing line, measures are taken to efficiently perform job processing in the manufacturing line. Here, the job refers to an object to be processed on the resource. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the manufacturing line according to the first embodiment. In a manufacturing factory for manufacturing an object to be manufactured, there are multi manufacturing lines P and P′. Although two manufacturing lines P and P′ are illustrated in FIG. 1, three or more manufacturing lines may be arranged in the manufacturing factory. As illustrated in FIG. 1, multi process areas S1, S2, . . . , and SQ are arranged in the manufacturing line P. Q is an integer of two or more. The multi process areas S1, S2, . . . , SQ correspond to multi processes in the manufacturing method of the object to be manufactured. Similarly, multi process areas S1′, S2′, . . . , SQ′ are arranged in the manufacturing line P′. When the object to be manufactured is a semiconductor device, multi processes include processes such as coating, exposure, development, etching, cleaning, impurity introduction, film formation, and heat treatment of a semiconductor substrate. Hereinafter, one manufacturing line P will be mainly described, but the same applies to the ot